New Lawson products introduced at CUE

Lawson Software made some noise during its recent Conference and User Exchange event by announcing several new and updated products. These include an IBM-hosted version of its ERP products, a new version of its M3 suite, and an upgrade to its Total Care program for managing and hosting the applications of its customers, among others.

According to a statement, Total Care Platinum provides Lawson customers a hosted ERP solution made for their industry that is said to require less up-front investment than those in “traditional” implementations and use of their Lawson applications.

As for the IBM deal, Lawson will be incorporating additional middleware from Big Blue, including IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, into Lawson System Foundation. The technology stack includes Lawson's own technology designed to work with IBM's middleware. This solution provides an SOA-based production and integration platform for mid-market companies.

Lawson released the 7.1 version of its M3 applications for manufacturing, distribution and maintenance companies. The new features of M3 7.1 include Smart Client, a tweaked version of its user interface and additional capabilities in Supply Chain Orders. M3 7.1 is designed for customers in fashion, food and beverage, distribution, asset-intensive and manufacturing industries.

The powers-that-be in Lawson also gave hints of an on-demand offering in the works, but this doesn’t come as a surprise anyway. Everybody’s getting into on-demand because it works.